Hibernation mode?

[Cornish Jack]

Good evening all!
Does anyone have any useful advice re. XP's hibernation mode, please? My mate has just experienced this 'helpful' function, closely followed by the good old Windoze BSOD. My forays into the bowels of Redmond's 'help' system was, as expected, useless. I have a feeling that it is either associated with, or part of, the screen save operation but would appreciate a good steer towards disabling it - hibernation mode, that is.
TIA

[rotorcraig]

Not strictly related to the screen saver (which protects the monitor from burn in), Hibernate is a power saving feature typically used by laptops running on battery power. If you don't use the PC for a set period of time, Hibernate kicks in and dumps an image of memory to disk then switches off. When you power back up the image is restored to memory and the PC is back exactly where you were ... unless it goes wrong in which case you get the BSOD!

To disable, look in Control Panel -> Power Options.

You can set "Hibernate" to "Never" under the relevant power schemes, but quickest just to uncheck the tick box in the "Hibernate" tab.

RC

[Cornish Jack]

Rotorcraig
Many thanks - that's what I was after!!:ok:
One little oddity here though - the 'pooter' in question is a 'bitsa' DESKTOP!!
I'm fairly certain that what my mate is describing IS hibernation but is there any similar condition for desktops?

[rotorcraig]

There is no real reason to have a desktop set to hibernate, but the feature is there in all copies of XP (it's not specifically a laptop thing) and if it's enabled then the PC will hibernate after the specified period.

So best have a look and disable anything that you find.

RC

[Cornish Jack]

Many thanks again, rotorcraig, will give that a whirl.:ok:

[Cornish Jack]

Just to update this little saga ... Managed to get to mate's house over weekend - 'pooter' not bootable in any mode, safe or otherwise.:{ Tried all sorts of dodges including HD reformat - no joy. Eventually brought said heap of rubbish home, to work on further. Wouldn't boot with another, already installed, HD. After a few more attempts, it now fails to even boot the Bios - nothing on screen at all:ugh:
Have sent away for a boot post mortem card to see if that will provide a clue but this one has me even more baffled than usual. Duff display card, maybe?? Rage Pro 3 or similar. Otherwise, Mobo or processor?
Anyone any thoughts, please?
TIA

[Wing Commander Fowler]

Do you even get any bios beeps? If so how many?

[Cornish Jack]

Yes, this is similarly odd - the failures have been progressive. From the initial BSOD with a number of different 'Geek Speak' messages (??? ,Equal_to_or_more_than), plus some with a series of eight character codes, the system became more and more reluctant to do anything useful, culminating in four or five blank screens with accompanying three beep outputs from the case speaker and now, NOTHING AT ALL!!!!:{
I feel the local tip is calling.:mad:

[Cornish Jack]

... and more. The original (apparent) hibernation problem would appear to have been merely a passing symptom of something much nastier:{
The subject machine is, now, totally inaccessible - no display output, no bios beeps, although the power up sounds normal, as far as running processor fan, mobo led etc. are concerned. Rather more worrying is that my standby 'checker' machine has become similarly comatose. This has left me with no means of isolating problem components. However, a third machine COULD be brought into the equation but I'm reluctant to do so in case there is something nasty being passed from machine to machine. Both 'pooters' are running Gigabyte mobos, different models, one (the standby) having O/B display but since I can't access the bios, I can't see whether this has been enabled. I have tried both PCI and AGP display cards on both machines but no success.:ugh:
I can't quite believe that two reasonably well 'specc'ed' machines would coincidentally turn their toes up at the same time but I have run out of any further ideas for checking/fixing. The Post Mortem card, by the way, goes through its light sequence but the English translation manual is NOT as it describes itself 'pellucid'.:ooh:
Any suggestions would be much appreciated:confused:
Finally, on a completely different machine - this one- the 'three fingered salute' doesn't work!! When activated, I get a dialogue box saying that this function has been disabled 'by the Administrator'. I am that Administrator and I :mad: well haven't!!:* I can't find any instructions as to how to re-enable it - again, any hints would be appreciated.
TIA

[chandlers dad]

The beeping on boot up, as WCF mentioned, is the "post" coding. The beeping will tell you of impending death of something going on. Forgotten the codes but have it in a book somewhere.

You need to find out which Bios you have on the computer then look at the codes below.

Here are the AMI Bios codes:

1 short DRAM refresh failure
2 short Parity circuit failure
3 short Base 64K RAM failure
4 short System timer failure
5 short Process failure
6 short Keyboard controller Gate A20 error
7 short Virtual mode exception error
8 short Display memory Read/Write test failure
9 short ROM BIOS checksum failure
10 short CMOS shutdown Read/Write error
11 short Cache Memory error
1 long, 3 short Conventional/Extended memory failure
1 long, 8 short Display/Retrace test failed

Award bios:

1 long, 2 short Indicates a video error has occurred and the BIOS cannot initialize the video screen to display any additional information
Any other beep(s) RAM problem.

Phoenix bios codes:

1-1-1-3 Verify Real Mode.
1-1-2-1 Get CPU type.
1-1-2-3 Initialize system hardware.
1-1-3-1 Initialize chipset registers with initial POST values.
1-1-3-2 Set in POST flag.
1-1-3-3 Initialize CPU registers.
1-1-4-1 Initialize cache to initial POST values.
1-1-4-3 Initialize I/O.
1-2-1-1 Initialize Power Management.
1-2-1-2 Load alternate registers with initial POST values.
1-2-1-3 Jump to UserPatch0.
1-2-2-1 Initialize keyboard controller.
1-2-2-3 BIOS ROM checksum.
1-2-3-1 8254 timer initialization.
1-2-3-3 8237 DMA controller initialization.
1-2-4-1 Reset Programmable Interrupt Controller.
1-3-1-1 Test DRAM refresh.
1-3-1-3 Test 8742 Keyboard Controller.
1-3-2-1 Set ES segment to register to 4 GB.
1-3-3-1 28 Autosize DRAM.
1-3-3-3 Clear 512K base RAM.
1-3-4-1 Test 512 base address lines.
1-3-4-3 Test 512K base memory.
1-4-1-3 Test CPU bus-clock frequency.
1-4-2-4 Reinitialize the chipset.
1-4-3-1 Shadow system BIOS ROM.
1-4-3-2 Reinitialize the cache.
1-4-3-3 Autosize cache.
1-4-4-1 Configure advanced chipset registers.
1-4-4-2 Load alternate registers with CMOS values.
2-1-1-1 Set Initial CPU speed.
2-1-1-3 Initialize interrupt vectors.
2-1-2-1 Initialize BIOS interrupts.
2-1-2-3 Check ROM copyright notice.
2-1-2-4 Initialize manager for PCI Options ROMs.
2-1-3-1 Check video configuration against CMOS.
2-1-3-2 Initialize PCI bus and devices.
2-1-3-3 Initialize all video adapters in system.
2-1-4-1 Shadow video BIOS ROM.
2-1-4-3 Display copyright notice.
2-2-1-1 Display CPU type and speed.
2-2-1-3 Test keyboard.
2-2-2-1 Set key click if enabled.
2-2-2-3 56 Enable keyboard.
2-2-3-1 Test for unexpected interrupts.
2-2-3-3 Display prompt "Press F2 to enter SETUP".
2-2-4-1 Test RAM between 512 and 640k.
2-3-1-1 Test expanded memory.
2-3-1-3 Test extended memory address lines.
2-3-2-1 Jump to UserPatch1.
2-3-2-3 Configure advanced cache registers.
2-3-3-1 Enable external and CPU caches.
2-3-3-3 Display external cache size.
2-3-4-1 Display shadow message.
2-3-4-3 Display non-disposable segments.
2-4-1-1 Display error messages.
2-4-1-3 Check for configuration errors.
2-4-2-1 Test real-time clock.
2-4-2-3 Check for keyboard errors
2-4-4-1 Set up hardware interrupts vectors.
2-4-4-3 Test coprocessor if present.
3-1-1-1 Disable onboard I/O ports.
3-1-1-3 Detect and install external RS232 ports.
3-1-2-1 Detect and install external parallel ports.
3-1-2-3 Re-initialize onboard I/O ports.
3-1-3-1 Initialize BIOS Data Area.
3-1-3-3 Initialize Extended BIOS Data Area.
3-1-4-1 Initialize floppy controller.
3-2-1-1 Initialize hard-disk controller.
3-2-1-2 Initialize local-bus hard-disk controller.
3-2-1-3 Jump to UserPatch2.
3-2-2-1 Disable A20 address line.
3-2-2-3 Clear huge ES segment register.
3-2-3-1 Search for option ROMs.
3-2-3-3 Shadow option ROMs.
3-2-4-1 Set up Power Management.
3-2-4-3 Enable hardware interrupts.
3-3-1-1 Set time of day.
3-3-1-3 Check key lock.
3-3-3-1 Erase F2 prompt.
3-3-3-3 Scan for F2 key stroke.
3-3-4-1 Enter SETUP.
3-3-4-3 Clear in-POST flag.
3-4-1-1 Check for errors
3-4-1-3 POST done--prepare to boot operating system.
3-4-2-1 One beep.
3-4-2-3 Check password (optional).
3-4-3-1 Clear global descriptor table.
3-4-4-1 Clear parity checkers.
3-4-4-3 Clear screen (optional).
3-4-4-4 Check virus and backup reminders.
4-1-1-1 Try to boot with INT 19.
4-2-1-1 Interrupt handler error.
4-2-1-3 Unknown interrupt error.
4-2-2-1 Pending interrupt error.
4-2-2-3 Initialize option ROM error.
4-2-3-1 Shutdown error.
4-2-3-3 Extended Block Move.
4-2-4-1 Shutdown 10 error.
4-3-1-3 Initialize the chipset.
4-3-1-4 Initialize refresh counter.
4-3-2-1 Check for Forced Flash.
4-3-2-2 Check HW status of ROM.
4-3-2-3 BIOS ROM is OK.
4-3-2-4 Do a complete RAM test.
4-3-3-1 Do OEM initialization.
4-3-3-2 Initialize interrupt controller.
4-3-3-3 Read in bootstrap code.
4-3-3-4 Initialize all vectors.
4-3-4-1 Boot the Flash program.
4-3-4-2 Initialize the boot device.
4-3-4-3 Boot code was read OK.

[rotorcraig]

However, a third machine COULD be brought into the equation but I'm reluctant to do so in case there is something nasty being passed from machine to machine.I'd guess that you are beyond software problems now - once you are counting POST bleeps you are looking at something adrift from a hardware perspective (either faulty or incompatible - in your case the former as this setup previously worked nicely, unless you very recently added something or flashed some firmware?).

Wonder whether you have a component that is so faulty that it belew the original motherboard and has now taken the second one with it? Or maybe it is just coincidence?

Sorry can't offer further advice at this point - hardware's not my thing :sad:

RC

[Tinstaafl]

A connection working loose eg memory chip or processor, power connector or possible a daughter board if it's a backplane design can give these sorts of problems.

Try removing & re-inserting anything that's socketed. Be careful about grounding yourself so you don't have a static discharge fry things.

[Cornish Jack]

Chandler's Dad, rotorcraig and Tinstaffl
Many thanks one and all.
The beep codes, unfortunately, can't help now, as rotorcraig points out.:( In
fact, the last heard beep series were three LONG beeps!!!! ) can't find THAT sequence in any of my bios books.:ugh:
Now for the latest in this thrilling saga ...
Decided that the only answer was to buy another base system (secondhand, 'cos I'm a cheapskate!); found one on EBay, case, mobo, AMD processor, 1Gig RAM, 80 Gig HD, DVD and separate CD drives, plus O/B display and multi USB and Firewire ports. Cracking!!!
Until, that is, boot-up is attempted. Constant messages 'searching for Boot Record from Floppy' then from DVD/CD drives then from IDE 0' - 'Not Found'
Tried eight different HDs and eventually found one which gave 'IDE 0 - OK.
HOWEVER, it asked for a restart and launched itself into another search for boot records followed by 'UNDI, PXE-2.0 (build 082) - OK
INTEL UNDI, PXE 2.0 (build 082)
Copyright (c) 1997 - 2000 Intel Corporation
SIS 900 PXE BootRom V 1.07 Hook Int 19
Client MAC ADDR: 00 06 6A 89 69 D5
GUID: FFFFFFFF - FFFF - FFFF - FFFF - FFFFFFFF
PXE -E51: No DHCP or Proxy DHCP
PXE-M0F: exiting Intel PXE ROM
then Searching for Boot Record from Floppy etc., etc., etc.,
:confused:
My head hurts and I don't understand any of that. Is there any kind soul who could interpret - either the significance of the hex addresses and/or the reference to PXE ROM or. indeed, Intel on an AMD mobo
Exits left, mumbling and weeping copiously.:ugh:

[Tinstaafl]

Sounds like the new machine lacks an operating system & the PC is going down its list of boot options:

Floppy disk
CD drive
Hard disk
Network (using an Intel chip to enable network access to find an operating system on the network, similarly to how the BIOS chip looks for a bootable operating system from the drives)

[Cornish Jack]

Thank you Tinstaffl
Yes, I could see that it was looking for an installed OS - what I couldn't understand was why it failed to see W98 on two of the tested HDs or the standard W98 on the two different W98 boot floppies or the Disk Genius DR DOS boot floppy or, finally the Ontrack Rescue disk!!! ???:confused:
I finally managed to make an initial chink of access courtesy of a response to another thread which touted the usefulness of Knoppix, the Linux distro which runs off the CD. This booted quite nicely, let me have a look at the drives and (tonight) has got the drive Fdisk'ed and formatted and W98 installed.
As I've mentioned before, it's rather ironic that when Redmond's finest go walkabout, it's Linux to the rescue!!:ok:
So, with fingers tightly crossed the 'new' machine MAY be on its way to becoming operational:D - however, I still have no idea what those 'Geek Speak' messages were all about and the other two machines are still as useful as the proverbial motorcycle ashtray!:ugh: Such are the joys of 'pooterism'

[ormus55]

really glad that the knoppix distro helped you out.
as ive said, its saved my skin numerous times.

prob the most useful disk in my toolbox. along with the ultimate boot disk cd.
strongly recommended to anyone with serious hdd problems.